How U.S. Capitalism Lifts All Boats

[Jonathan Nitzan]

This U.S. chart is included as part of my second assignment to political economy students: I ask them to make and analyze a similar chart for another country.

The U.S. data are remarkable. The long term trend of total equity returns (appreciated capital plus reinvested dividends) has grown 4.6% faster annually than of the average wage rate (the start to end increase was even faster).

During the past 141 years, total returns grew 1,666 times faster than wages.

Discussion on the Real-World Economics Review Blog.

Topic

[Scot Griffin]

Jonathan Nitzan wrote:

Discussion on the Real-World Economics Review Blog.

I’ll say. Quite a discussion.

[Blair Fix]

There is a surprising amount of information in this chart. On that front, chart making is like writing. You don’t realize how much there is to it until you try to do it yourself.

[Author]

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